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Public sector workers feel sting of precarious jobs, data shows

Growth of temporary work in government undermining public services, critics say.

Jessica Sikora, worked on contract for the government for more than two years before landing a permanent job with the Ministry of Community and Social Services. She says temporary jobs often result in low morale for workers. (Melissa Renwick / Toronto Star) | Order this photo

Despite its vow to tackle precarious employment, almost half of the Ontario government’s own job postings last year were for temporary positions, data obtained by the Star shows.

In a province where around one-third of all jobs are insecure, a full 44 per cent of the 10,682 jobs posted and filled at Ontario ministries in 2013/2014 were temporary or seasonal, according to documents accessed through a freedom of information request. Those figures exclude student summer jobs.

Six ministries hired more temporary than permanent employees last year, including Correctional Services, Community and Social Services, and the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.

Of the 300 job postings for provincial correctional officers, not a single position was permanent.

Critics argue that jobs that once provided a sure path to the middle class are now leaving more and more workers unable to access benefits or pensions.

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They argue the large volume of temporary positions is creating onerous turnover and training costs.

And they argue that the government is failing to set an example for decent, secure work — even as it publicly promotes good jobs for Ontarians.

“It’s a quadruple whammy,” said Jessica Sikora, a caseworker at the Ministry of Community and Social Services and a young workers’ rep for OPSEU, the union for 35,500 public servants.

“It means there is no training. It means morale is down. It means those people cannot necessarily focus on the work they’re supposed to be doing. And that also means they are less likely to make the decisions that are most economically effective for the government.”

In an emailed statement to the Star, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services said the public sector was “an award-winning employer, most recently recognized as one of the Greater Toronto’s Top Employers for 2016.”

The statement said that of the 63,444 people employed in government, 53,831 are currently full-time and permanent. In response to questions from the Star about the high number of temporary hires in 2013/2014, the ministry said it had hired 511 more permanent, full-time staff since June of this year.

It added that there were “a number of reasons” why temporary jobs were necessary, including as cover for maternity and other leaves. They can also be filled by permanent staff on secondment. Other job postings are temporary because they are for short-term projects, like the Pan-Am games.

But beyond these purposes, critics argue temporary contracts are increasingly being used simply to avoid long-term commitments to employees.

“My experience is that it has become close to impossible to enter into the government of Ontario as a permanent employee,” said Sikora, who worked on contract for over two years before securing a permanent job.

While temporary positions may often serve as a foot in the door, many workers — especially young ones — end up in a “cyclical situation where they’re in a job interview forever,” according to Dave Bulmer, who represents more than 12,000 public sector professionals as the head of the union AMAPCEO.

“All it really does is allow the employer to try people on for an extended period of time almost in a paid internship,” he added.

Temporary workers in the public service do not receive a pension, benefits or paid holidays although they receive a small lump sum of cash in lieu of benefits and vacation pay.

Vicki Long, 31, recently left the public sector after working there for five years at three different ministries on six different contracts. While she appreciated gaining a variety of skills in different roles, she says the system as a whole was frustrating.

“As a contract worker, I often found myself doing the same work as my permanent colleagues, but without the same benefits,” she said, adding that she took a $15,000 pay cut from her previous contract after returning to work from grad school.

When it comes to frontline services, Sikora says she believes the move toward temporary work is having a “dramatic” impact on the quality of service received by vulnerable Ontarians.

Last year, temporary caseworkers at the Ministry of Community and Social Service were hired at double the rate of permanent ones, the Star’s analysis shows. While there were 42 permanent caseworker positions created, there were 84 temporary hires.

“The more turnover and the less experienced your staff, the more inefficiently (services) are being delivered,” Sikora said.

“When you work in a situation where you provide a frontline service, you have to be compassionate to the needs of the member of the public you are serving. And that is going to be that much harder to do if you’re thinking, ‘I don’t know if I have a job next week.”

“It’s a devaluation of public services in the most sinister possible way,” added Warren “Smokey” Thomas, head of OPSEU.

Overall, around half of all jobs in the GTA and Hamilton are now precarious, according to McMaster/United Way report released earlier this year.

At the time of the report’s release, Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne said her government had “chosen to reject the notion that the growing numbers of precarious workers are an unfortunate and unavoidable economic reality of the 21st century.”

“We’ve chosen the path of reform,” she said.

Wynne’s government is currently reviewing the province’s outdated employment and labour laws to provide more protection for vulnerable workers.

Sheila Block, a senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said providing good public sector jobs should be part of government’s efforts to reduce precarious employment.

“If we have a government that’s committed to reducing inequality, we should expect that its actions meet its words.”

Temporary vs. permanent: Why does it matter?

In both private and public sectors, contract work can provide both employers and employees with mutually-desired flexibility.

But statistics also show that working on a temporary basis has financial implications for workers: in Ontario, temporary employees earn on average 30 per cent less than permanent ones, according to a recent report by the Toronto-based Workers’ Action Centre.

There is also a demonstrated link between job security and overall well-being. For example, a recent analysis by McMaster University and United Way showed that middle earners in precarious jobs have poorer mental health than even low-income workers in secure work.

As union members, temporary public sector workers still have a great deal more protection than most precarious workers in the private sector — who have far lower levels of unionization.

One category of government worker that does not have union protection is the temporary agency worker. The job posting data released to the Star did not include the number of temporary help positions, but according to the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services there were on average 300 temporary agency employees across government this year.

Earlier this year, the Star revealedthat the government spent millions of dollars on contracts with temp agencies that its own inspections found to be violating the Employment Standards Act.

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